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  • Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

  • A heart-wrenching story of friendship between two ladies in 19th century China. The author did a wonderful job of bringing not only her characters to life but also painting a picture of the life of a woman in traditional Chinese society.

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Feb 23, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • This was a moving book about friendship and how different perceptions can affect it. I also learned a lot about women's lives and customs in 19th century rural China.

    

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• ― krin5292 said on Jan 23, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • A story about friendship and rural China in the 19th century. I bought this not long after I moved to China and was interested by the information, but two years on and I can't remember much of the story.

    

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• ― Liz4211 said on Oct 12, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

  • A very descriptive memoir style fictional account about the role of women in C19 Chinese Society; where friendships among the women were of great importance. Until comparatively recently Chinese women led a very controlled life. They were made to feel worthless for having been born female in the fir ... Continue

    A very descriptive memoir style fictional account about the role of women in C19 Chinese Society; where friendships among the women were of great importance. Until comparatively recently Chinese women led a very controlled life. They were made to feel worthless for having been born female in the first place, with their only use in society to give birth to sons.

    This is a beautiful story of the strong friendship between Lily and Snow Flower. As little girls of six these two became ‘laotong’ that is young girls that are matched by such things as date of birth and social standing to become soul mates for life. These relationships were considered as important as their eventual marriages would be.

    The story follows the complex friendship from the beginning of ‘laotong’ pairing to the end of their lives. Together Lily and Snow Flower share the joys and sorrows of their lives; from foot-binding, arranged marriages, wedding feasts, birth of children and other festivals within the larger picture of disease, famine and war. Lily is now 80 years old and relating the story of her relationship with Snow-Flower and how they developed a lifelong bond through secret ‘nu shu’(a written coded language created by women for women exclusively) messages to each other over the years. In telling her story she feels she is seeking atonement for mistakes she made, which for forty years have worried her.

    The process of foot-binding I have always found disturbing, but the account in this book is the most vivid I have ever read. Apparently perfect feet are 7cm in length! This practice is known to have still been carried out in rural China within the region that Tongku is located in until as recently as the early 1950’s.

    I recommend this highly not just as a beautiful story but because it is one that will impact you deeply and teach you much about the role of women in the history of Chinese culture.

    www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5 168858

    

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• ― Lindyloumac said on Aug 25, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Fast read, heart breaking

  • I read this in two weeks, and I have a 3 yr old! If you loved memoirs of a geisha this will be right up your alley.

    

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• ― Lmarker said on Apr 8, 2009 | Add your feedback

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  • Beautiful book on friendship

  • A lesson to learn about how we treat those we cherish. The hardships of women & how we put up a good front out of necessity. One womens regret not to communicate clearly with her laotong.

    

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• ― Sapphire Apple (livisplace) said on Oct 30, 2008 | Add your feedback

Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

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